1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to ammunition, in particular ammunition for use in conventional small arm weapons having smooth or rifled barrels.
2. Description of Prior Art
Conventional shotgun slugs have major weaknesses. The slug has limited distance and accuracy. The invention of the sabot improved the distance and accuracy, but compromised the "knock down power" of the projectile. Today's sabot (Sowash 5,016,538 May 21, 1991) has a tendency to drill through the animal without mushrooming. Since the projectile does not mushroom up effectively, this over penetration does not cause near the injury to the animal as do conventional slugs. Additionally, today's sabot slugs (Sowash 5,016,538 May 21, 1991 and Kinchin 5,479,861 Jan. 2, 1996) have a very poor aerodynamic design and lose a great deal of accuracy if not shot out of a rifled barrel. Conventional sabots have a plastic embodiment which rotates when passing through the rifling in the barrel or in the choke tube. When shot through a smooth bore barrel the slug fails to rotate. This leads to poor accuracy and shorter distance. This is a major problem to hunters who have smooth bore barrels. The majority of hunters use smooth bore barrels.
Therefore, the needs for a projectile with improved aerodynamics design, improved transfer of energy to the sabot, improved expansion increasing "knock down power" and the ability to be used in a smooth bore barrel is needed.